MBTA ahead of schedule on reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Jun 15, 2023

Commuter train

Government/ Transportation

By Bruce Mohl 0 Comments Jul 28, 2023

MBTA OFFICIALS say they are on track to reduce the authority’s greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent by 2024, six years ahead of schedule.

During a lengthy meeting on Thursday, the MBTA board approved a series of short- and long-range steps to begin electrifying the transit authority’s bus and commuter rail operations and to continue purchasing electricity from renewable sources.

The long-delayed bus procurement calls for the purchase of 80, 40-foot battery electric buses made by New Flyer with a heating system that runs on diesel fuel during the winter months to give the buses the 120-mile range they need. Deliveries will start with 10 buses in 2024, 32 in 2025, and 43 in 2026. The deliveries are expected to sync up with the development of new garages for electric buses in North Cambridge (scheduled to open in fall 2025) and Quincy (fall 2026).

Because of concern about lithium battery fires, T officials said the new buses and the bus garages will have fire detection and fire suppression equipment. They will also have technology alerting the driver if someone or some thing gets too close to the bus.

The cost of the initial battery electric bus procurement is $119 million, which works out to roughly $1.5 million per bus. All but $3 million will come from federal funding the state received under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Moving on from the diesel locomotives used by the MBTA’s commuter rail system is going to be a much more complicated process, largely because the cost could be enormous. The board overseeing the T in 2019 approved a plan to electrify the Fairmount, Providence-Stoughton, and at least a portion of the Newburyport-Rockport line, but very little has been done since then. In the current five-year capital budget approved on Thursday, T officials said $120 million is set aside for hiring, planning, and early design work, but not for electric locomotives or electrification.

“We’ve not seen the progress we need,” said Sen. Brendan Crighton of Lynn, the co-chair of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee. “We need to pick up the pace.”

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

The contract price includes the cost of electricity plus renewable energy certificates, which verify the energy is green and also provide a subsidy to the producer. The cost of renewable energy credits, or RECs, has gone up substantially, and is expected to rise from $854,000 a year under the current contract to $6 million a year under the new deal. The current contract relies on RECs associated with older hydroelectric projects in Maine. The new contract will obtain 30 percent of the RECs from solar and wind projects in Massachusetts and the rest from hydro projects in Maine.